REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RfP)

Consultant to support C40 engagement with G20 Secretariat and delivery

of Urban-20 in India

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Inc.

120 Park Avenue, 23rd Floor
New York, NY 10017
United States of America

9 January 2022

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1. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc. (“C40”)
C40 is a network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities,
who are working to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the
climate crisis, and create a future where everyone, everywhere can thrive. Mayors
of C40 cities are committed to using a science-based and people-focused
approach to help the world limit global heating to 1.5°C and build healthy,
equitable and resilient communities. Through a Global Green New Deal, mayors
are working alongside a broad coalition of representatives from labour, business,
the youth climate movement and civil society to go further and faster than ever
before. 

C40’s team of 200+ staff is headquartered in London, with offices in New York,
Joburg, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Beijing and Paris, and individual
staff based across 25+ different locations, with the Office of the Chair based in
London. 

The strategic direction of the organisation is determined by an elected Steering

Committee of C40 mayors which is chaired by the Mayor of London, Sadiq
Khan. Three term Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg serves as
President of the C40 Board of Directors, which is responsible for operational
oversight. A nine-person management team, led by Executive Director, Mark
Watts, leads the day-to-day management of C40. C40’s three core strategic
funders are Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Children’s Investment Fund
Foundation (CIFF) and Realdania. 

To learn more about the work of C40 and our cities, please visit our Website, or
follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

2. Purpose and Background

2.1 Background

Urban 20 (U20), is a city-led initiative, for and by cities, to enable constructive

exchanges between cities from G20 countries and the G20 governments as they
meet annually to drive progress on the world’s biggest issues and opportunities.

Urban 20 was initiated in 2017 by Horacio Rodrigo Larreta and Anne Hidalgo,
mayors of Buenos Aires and Paris respectively - with the support of C40 and
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) as conveners. The U20 is a city
diplomacy initiative that provides a space for cities to engage in the Group of 20
(G20), enhancing the role of cities as global economic and political leaders.
A U20 cycle has taken place every year since, following the rotating presidency of
the G20, with a different U20 city (or pair of cities) chairing the process and with
the support of C40 and UCLG as co-conveners. Together the Chair City and
conveners form the U20 Executive Team. The conveners support the U20 Chair
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city(ies) towards the successful delivery of U20, including city &
partner engagement, priority setting, Communique deliberations
and writing, G20 engagement and of course the U20 Mayors
Summit.

Since 2019, the Urban 20 has been recognised as an official G20 engagement
group.
This year (2023), the U20 Chair is the city of Ahmedabad. It will be supported in
this role by the C40 City Diplomacy (in their capacity as conveners of U20,
alongside a team of UCLG colleagues) and South & West Asia teams.

2.2 Objectives of Request for Proposal

The C40 South & West Asia (SWA) Regions’ team is looking to procure an
individual consultant (Supplier) for a period of one year to support
engagement with the U20 and G20 Secretariat of India and delivery of Urban
20 Summit 2023. This consultant is expected to be the focal point of C40’s
engagement with the G20 Secretariat - in C40’s capacity as a co-convener of U20
- and support the onground coordination of the Urban 20 Summit, 2023.

The consultant will integrate the core C40 U20 team, which coordinates a wider
C40 working group and integrate the Conveners meetings (C40 x UCLG) and
Executive team meetings (C40 x UCLG x Ahmedabad and their technical partner
NIUA).

The responsibilities of the consultant will include:

● Act as a liaison on the ground between C40 - in their capacity as conveners

- and the local U20 partners including the Chair city of Ahmedabad and
their support team: the National Institute of Urban Affairs, the Ministry of
Housing and Urban Affairs and the G20 Secretariat.
● Under the lead of C40 City Diplomacy team and the U20 Conveners,
coordinate on the ground with the chair city’s team in relation to the
delivery of the U20 main outputs including the U20 Sherpa meeting, U20
Communique and support the Chair city with hosting the U20 Summit.
● Support the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of
India/G20 Secretariat for the coordination of U20 activities including
communication and coordination among various partners and teams.
● Identify contact points and facilitate engagement with other G20
Engagement Groups in collaboration with the U20 Executive team
● Scope and map out advocacy opportunities as well as critical stakeholders
and advise on strategic interventions to achieve the priorities and
objectives of the U20 cycle and C40’s political strategy priorities in the
national context.
● Support C40’s strategy of engagement and influence with the G20,
working closely with relevant C40 teams and especially the U20 Executive
Team.

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 ● Support the relationship with the U20 chair together with
the relevant C40 region & City Diplomacy staff.
● Support the C40’s strategy of highlighting Climate
Financing as a critical topic in the U20 engagements.
● Together with the internal U20 project lead, devise and support the delivery
of targeted advocacy activities throughout the G20 cycle to achieve the
aims of the C40 Political Strategy - working closely with the internal C40
U20 working group and C40’s regional team in South and West Asia.
● Stay abreast of political developments in the G20 cycle and ensure that C40
reacts promptly to changes in external situations so that they can be
properly reflected in our messaging and content.
● Where appropriate, support internal briefing & reporting processes
regarding the U20 and G20 engagement opportunities.

3. Proposal Guidelines
3.1 Submission Details

This Request for Proposal represents the requirements for an open and
competitive process. Proposals will be accepted until 5pm Indian Standard Time
on 19 January 2023. Any proposals received after this date and time will not be
accepted. All proposals should include clear timetables, how you will work with
C40, clear costs and detail on experience in this area.

The proposal should give C40 evaluators all the information they need to assess
your bid. Please clearly indicate where applicable:

● How your proposal is responsive to the Evaluation Criteria (refer Section 4

for details) – include your latest resume with examples of relevant past
work along with 3 client references. Please ensure all information required
in the C40 CV Template is present in your submission.
● Information about your fees in INR;

You must include adequate information about how your costs were calculated to
enable evaluation of cost reasonableness.

3.2 RfP Timeline

RFP Timeline Due Date

Request for Proposals sent out 11 January 2023

Questions submitted to C40 14 January 2023

C40 responds to questions 16 January 2023

Deadline for Proposal 19 January 2023

submission

Evaluation of Proposal 19 January 2023 - 23 January 2023

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Presentation on Proposal 23 January 2023

All Potential Suppliers notified 24 January 2023

of outcome

3.3 Supplier Diversity

C40 is committed to supplier diversity and inclusive procurement through

promoting equity, diversity and inclusivity in our supplier base. We believe that by
procuring a diverse range of suppliers, we get a wider range of experiences and
thoughts from suppliers and thus are best able to deliver to the whole range of
our diverse cities and the contexts that they operate within.

We strongly encourage suppliers (individuals and corporations) that are diverse in

terms of size, age, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, majority owned
and controlled by a minority group, physical or mental ability, ethnicity and
perspective to put forward a proposal to work with us.

Feel welcome to refer to C40’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement as

supplier diversity and inclusive procurement is one element of applying equity,
diversity and inclusion to help the world limit global heating to 1.5°C and build
healthy, equitable and resilient communities.

3.4 Contract

Please note this is a contract for professional services and not a grant opportunity.
Individuals unable to accept contracts for professional services should not submit
bids. The work will be completed on the C40 Standard Service Provider
Agreement

These terms and conditions are accepted as drafted by the majority of our
suppliers and we reserve the right to penalise your bid on the basis of
non-acceptance of terms. If you do wish to include any requested amendments
with your proposal, please do not mark up the document in tracked changes but
provide a separate document for review setting out clearly your rationale for the
change.

If C40 is unable to execute a contract with the winner of this competitive process,
we reserve the right to award the contract to the second highest Potential
Supplier.

4. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

4.1 Supplier (Individual) Requirements

● Based in New Delhi and willing to work out of the Ministry of Housing and
Urban Affairs office/U20/G20 Secretariat of the ministry for the duration of

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 work (1 year). The role will also include moderate travel
especially to Ahmedabad for delivery of the U20 events.
● Masters Degree with relevant experience of 7-12 years in
local, regional and/or national government, business or NGO
sectors with focus on climate and sustainability action, diplomacy and
advocacy.
● Ability to lead strategic discussions to help facilitate action-oriented
approaches and problem solving.
● Experience with successful creation and delivery of cross-team &
multi-stakeholders projects and ability to demonstrate a strong track
record of measurable results.
● Experienced with Microsoft Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and
Google Drive;
● Policy background in climate change or sustainability is highly desirable.
● A strong background in international climate politics, with knowledge and
understanding of political sensitivities, and an ability to operate in a
complex political environment.
● Experience engaging with the G20 ecosystem is highly desirable
● Knowledge and experience in the field of climate finance is highly desirable
● Experience managing a global advocacy platform, preferably including
mayoral and city/state/national representatives.
● Experience managing a project and project team.
● Excellent organisation and project management skills, attention to detail.
● International experience, particularly working across different cultures,
languages and time zones, will be preferred
● Ability to perform and adapt under pressure.
● Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills and the
demonstrated ability to effectively interface with different teams towards a
shared goal.
● Fluent in English and Hindi
● Some travel as per project requirements. May, on occasion, be required to
work outside typical 9am-6pm working hours to accommodate meetings
scheduled for global attendances.

Additional Requirements
● Supplier must already have the right to work in India

4.2 Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Familiarity with climate policies/terms, national and 20%

international diplomacy, strong communication and
coordination skills.

Relevant past experience of working with city 30%

governments, national or international organisations

Ability to meet the listed Supplier requirements and 20%

cost effectiveness

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 Immediate availability of Supplier to initiate project 20%
activities

Client References 10%

5. Project Specifications

5.1 Project Management

The consultant will report to C40 Regions team and the G20 Secretariat in India as
points of contact for their consultancy services Upon onboarding, the Supplier will
be required to develop detailed monthly work plans coordinating with C40 as well
as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, along with a schedule of payments
in close coordination with the C40 point of contact to support delivery of activities
as outlined above. All deliverables need to be completed to the satisfaction of the
C40 point of contact. All interim deliverables and change requests will need to be
approved by the C40 point of contact. Besides, C40 staff will be involved in review
of each deliverable and will be available to provide guidance and inputs.
Additionally, overall progress review meetings will be organised every 2 weeks
with the C40 point of contact.

5.2 Project Timeline

The assignment will kick off in January 2023 and is due to run for one year.
However, C40 reserves the right to terminate the engagement at any time during
the project duration in line with the Termination clause specified under the C40
Standard Service Provider Agreement.

5.3 Project Budget

A maximum budget of INR 20,58,000 is available, including all taxes, apart from
expenses that may be incurred to travel to other cities. Bids must not exceed this
value. All proposals must include proposed costs to complete the tasks described
in the project scope, including professional rates, all VAT and other taxes. All costs
incurred in connection with the submission of this RfP are non-refundable by
C40.

Payment will be made in a pre-agreed installments (bidder to specify) according

to meeting project milestones and satisfactory delivery of the work plan (to be
developed in consultation with C40, U20/G20 Secretariat) and as approved by the
C40 point of contact. Travel is expected for this work and all travel expenses will be
reimbursed as per actuals, in line with the C40 Travel and Expenses Policy. All
travel is to be pre-approved by the C40 point of contract prior to incurring the
cost.

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5.4 Language and Documentation

All outputs should be provided in English. All documentation

should use C40 templates (unless otherwise specified) and be provided in an
editable and portable document format, compatible with computer software
used by C40 and C40 cities. Editing, formatting and presentation of electronic
files should be of a consistent, professional and publishable standard. All project
deliverables, reports and documentation, content and intellectual property will be
owned by C40.

6. C40 Policies

C40 expects third parties to able to abide by these C40 policies

● Ethical Business Conduct Policy here

● Environmental Policy here
● Whistleblowing Policy here

7. Submissions
Each Potential Supplier must submit 1 copy of their proposal (according to
specifications in Sec 3.1) to the email addresses below by 5pm Indian Standard
Time on 19 January 2023:

1. Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni, C40 City Advisor, South and West Asia,
nkulkarni@c40.org and
2. Ms. Sanjana Acharya, C40 Regional Officer, South and West Asia,
sacharya@c40.org

Any pre-bid queries need to be submitted to the above email addresses by 5 pm

IST on 14 January 2023. Anonymized responses to questions will be provided
here when the Q&A period closes.

Disclaimer

C40 will not accept any liability or be responsible for any costs incurred by
Potential Suppliers in preparing a response for this RFP.

Neither the issue of the RFP, nor any of the information presented in it, should be
regarded as a commitment or representation on the part of C40 (or any of its
partners) to enter into a contractual arrangement. Nothing in this RFP should be
interpreted as a commitment by C40 to award a contract to a Potential Supplier
as a result of this procurement, nor to accept the lowest price or any tender.